Marvel and Paramout expand their original deal; Paramount will now distribute Marvel's next five films, including Iron Man 3.

Quote:

Marvel Studios announced a new expanded partnership with Paramount Pictures Monday, which grants the studio the world-wide distribution rights to Marvel's next five self-produced feature films, including Iron Man 3. Those live-action adaptations of Marvel comic book properties include Iron Man 2 (May 7, 2010), Thor (July 16, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6, 2011), The Avengers (July 15, 2011), and Iron Man 3, which has not been given a release date as of yet.

The new deal is an expansion of the original deal between the two parties, and now includes theatrical distribution in foreign territories previously serviced by Marvel through local distribution entities and includes Japan, Germany, France, Spain, and Australia/New Zealand. Iron Man 2 will still be distributed in Germany by Telemunchen, in order to satisfy a previous agreement.

“Coming off of Iron Man’s incredible success this summer, we could not be more excited about extending our relationship with Marvel,” said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures in the announcement. “Marvel’s iconic brand, its popular characters and its proven ability to create compelling and visually spellbinding films complement Paramount’s great history of filmmaking. We look forward to a long and successful run together.”

“Paramount is an excellent partner and an outstanding global distributor,” said David Maisel, Chairman of Marvel Studios. “Through our experience on Iron Man, Paramount has demonstrated a passion and ability to release Marvel properties theatrically, allowing us to focus on making great movies for the largest audience possible.”

Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jon Favreau, was distributed by Paramount year and is the second-highest grossing movie at the North American box office so far this year, taking in over $318 million dollars domestically and over $571 million worldwide. The film will be released Tuesday, September 30th on DVD and Blu-ray.

This deal come on the heels of Monday's report by Variety that actor/director Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct 2010's Thor.
The former Royal Shakespeare Company member has been more active in front of the camera in recent years, having appeared in such films as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and the upcoming Tom Cruise film Valkyrie; but his directorial credits include the Oscar-nominated Henry V, as well as Dead Again and the critically panned Frankenstein released in 1994. He’s currently starring in Ivanhoe on the London stage.

The current Thor script is by Mark Protosevich, screenwriter for the recent Will Smith hit I Am Legend. Plans for the film have been previously described by Marvel Studios executives as their "Lord of the Rings", but the character Thor is reportedly also due to participate in the 2011 Avengers movie.

This is terrific news, because I won't want Avengers to be the unofficial IM3.

__________________"I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high, it always has been, and it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not." - Captain America

Yeah it's confirmed. Everyone is pretty much signed. May 3rd 2013 is probably the target date.

So basically RDJ'll be filming Avengers and then going immediately into filming IM3. I hope they get a different writer for IM3(not that I dislike Theroux) and really start on it, like now in order to iron out all the wrinkles and make a kick-ass story. IM1 basically got most of it's story inspiration from Stan Lee's original idea which is why it's the stronger story of the 1st two movies. IM2 was less about the story and more about the characters and that's not necessarily a bad thing. But IMO, IM3 needs to be story, story, story!!! Sure, character stuff still needs to be there but they have the perfect opportunity to one-up the second movie and break the threequel curse(again, the Indiana Jones model).

__________________
"Spider-man is the Charlie Brown of the Marvel Universe." ~ Kevin Smith

there's some time issues here I think. Does the Avengers even have a script and/or director I read a rumble about Wheadon but is that right?

You have everyones involvement in Avengers, where is the time for the studio to work on 2 films with a near time frame. You have all these moving parts of actors with other projects, studio shooting locations, script rewrites, I just don't see it all meshing consecutively like Marvel wants the movies to flow. I guess there's nothing but time and IM2 is making bank so...

there's some time issues here I think. Does the Avengers even have a script and/or director I read a rumble about Wheadon but is that right?

Yes, Whedon's been confirmed as director of The Avengers. As for the script, I believe that a script by Zak Penn had been completed, but that said script will be 'retooled' to some degree by Whedon, who will also, I believe, 'retool' part(s) of the Captain America script as well.

Regarding IM3, Favreau made statements a couple of days ago (according to Yahoo!Movies) essentially confirming that the Mandarin will be the film's villain. How, exactly, he will reconcile the distinctly technology-based tone of the first two IM films with the more magically-based elements that are going to be introduced in Thor and will most likely be present in The Avangers will have to be shown, but I think that there's a way to do it that doesn't 'cheapen' what's been done thus far or negate it in any way.